about the fiscal cliff. and so i think that again there are a lot of people that want to contribute. they know that there should be shared sacrifice. they realize that we cannot do this on the backs of our elderly, poor people and those in the middle class and those trying to get to the middle class on the backs of students. and i think they're saying, you know what? we can pay more because we want to do something that is good for our country. and hopefully that message will get through to the republicans and indeed the tea party folks. >> but if the ultimate goal here, sir, is to cut the national debt and sometimes people lose sight of that in the discussion here, the gop says the dems are just offering more spending and little in way of cutting. are democrats willing to give at all on entitlements? >> keep in mind, yes. and the president has made it clear. but we've got to look very carefully at the entitlements and realize that something like medicare, medicare right now you've got a situation where there